At SDCC this year, Marvel announced the release of a five-issue series of one-shots - 40 pages of "all-new material/no reprints" (according to the solicits) at $3.99 - focusing on what "some of the most popular Avengers think about what it takes to be a member of the legendary team" (from the marvel.com article linked at the bottom of this).

Covers (all by Marko Djurdjevic except Thor, which is by Gerald Parel) and solicits for all five issues:The scientist's name is Hank Pym. The socialite's is Janet Van Dyne. Both are haunted by personal tragedy and the burning need to...avenge! It's insect love, Marvel-style, as we revisit the unlikely origin (and courtship) of the astonishing Ant-Man and the winsome Wasp!

Is he man or machine? Created by the evil Ultron, The Vision was meant to be a terrifying weapon of destruction. But when tasked with destroying The Avengers, he must decide whether to follow his programming...or defy his creator. Witness the origin of The Avengers' most mysterious member in this exciting one-shot!

He is X-Factor's hot-headed speedster, and she is arguably the most dangerous mutant alive. But there was once a time when these two were children, twins on the run from those who feared and hated them, belonging with no one save for one another...until they joined the Avengers! For the first time ever in one titanic tale, see the path that took Wanda and Pietro Maximoff from vagrants to mutant terrorists under Magneto to Earth's mightiest heroes!

What makes someone a hero? An Avenger? Is it super-powers? An indomitable will? An innate sense of right and wrong? For Luke Cage its one terrible mistake that has haunted him his entire life. But can a lifetime of good deeds make up for his years spent on the other side of the law? And will that past ever let him go, or will it tear him to pieces?

A chosen son seemingly determined to simultaneously live up to and defeat his father's expectations. A brother who's influence he cannot abide but will never escape. Join Thor in Asgard for a timeless archetypal family drama played out against a cosmic backdrop where the human journey toward humility and compassion is also Thor's journey toward godhood and worthiness.

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Another bunch of origin bits and pieces? Aren't Marvel kinda sucking the well dry with this stuff? In the past decade, we've had three sets of stories about the old-school Avengers alone (all of them by Joe Casey), and in early 2012, we're getting the Season One stuff, aren't we?

I mean, would it have been so hard to integrate this stuff into those? Expecting people to buy an Ant-Man and the Wasp one-shot for the stupid prices comics cost these days is pretty much the same as expecting people to throw down a little more for an OGN. Unless these are like, a dollar, which I doubt. These aren't going to pull many new readers in, let's be honest. They cost too much, and anyone who really cares about Janet or Hank or Thor or whatever can easily brush up on Wikipedia, or collect some of the older material, of which there is plenty.

On a lighter note - sort of - Marvel really, really, honest to god shouldn't have pissed Djurdjevic off enough for him to leave. That guy was basically Marvel's 'Cover' guy. He was the best cover artist they had, and generated and amazing signature style for the company that DC couldn't hope to replicate on their best day. Look at those lush covers he often did for Thor - DC could only hope for something as beautiful as that. And yet, Marvel were to content to shove their head up their own asses and piss him off, and it's really their loss.

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Don't be so hard on Marvel. The 'Origins' stories are usually where they 'adjust' timelines, retcon away things that either don't work or are anachronistic, and sometimes pave the way for a return. Janet being dead, for instance, they might be assessing the character's viability.